Underwater Strobe Finder

With help from Richard Perry and Ryan Canon, and support from industry professionals, I have compiled data on 35 underwater strobes that are compatible with digital cameras. My goal is to offer this information in an objective format that would be user friendly, especially to those new to underwater photography.

All specifications found in the Strobe Finder have been obtained directly from the various manufacturer's web sites, spec sheets, or users manuals.

Since this is all by manufacturers' claims, I just wish there were some way to make sure we are comparing apples to apples. Like for angle of converage, if that is the 1/2 stop down, or 2 stops down, or what...

Maybe such data could be compiled by folks that own the various strobes.

That's a project that Craig and I have been talking about and working about for a long time. Craig's got the black/blue bottomed pool for it and we have a large assortment of strobes. Craig has bought some testing materials, but we just haven't gotten the time together to do it.

very nice database. difficult and painfull to collect these informations without it.

only thing I would like to add: Some people could get confused by the mixed coverage numbers and believe a Sea&Sea ys-60 is stated with the same coverage as a Subtronic Alpha.
Would be nice to see if it is a topside value (Sea&Sea, Inon, ...) or an underwater value (Subtronic, Ikelite, ....). As you have done with guide numbers (air/water).

Outstanding Thank you for the effort. Just one nit - for the Inons your link goes to http://inonamerica.com/ . They are no longer representing Inon in North America.

As for air vs. u/w GN, a general rule of u/w GN ~= 50% air GN works fairly well. Obviously, the u/w GN depends on the water conditions. I hang a white sheet as a target and measure the light fall off in the strobe area of coverage (air GN vs. coverage area). It can be considerable. I prefer to use two strobes to “paint” my subjects with the edges of the strobe coverage. For even light, the strobes would be equal distance from the subject and set at the same power. Multiply the apparent GN (using water and edge factors) by the square root of 2 (~ 1.4) to get your best guess GN.

Long ago in a land far far away, I attended a workshop by Franklin Viola. He said he learned how to light his subjects by shooting things that don’t move, e.g. sponges. I think that is still good advice today and a heck of a lot more fun that shooting sheets in one’s living room.